Spell Spotlight: Healing Spirit

Spell Spotlight: Healing Spirit

Healing spirit is the most criticized new spell in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Its design has been heatedly discussed on our own forums, on the D&D Reddit, and every message board and social network in between. It has been almost universally denounced by online fans of D&D as utterly broken, and in desperate need of houseruling, official errata, or even outright banning.

But is healing spirit really that broken? And if it is, what about it needs to be changed in order to fix it? These may sound like silly questions to ask, but a good game designer (and I firmly believe that all good Dungeon Masters must also be good game designers) should look at every spell, class feature, and racial trait from all angles. Let’s take a look at healing spirit—where it succeeds, where it fails, and how you can change it to fit your game.

What Does Healing Spirit Do?

Healing spirit is a 2nd-level spell from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything only available to druids and rangers (and bards that steal it with Magical Secrets or Additional Magical Secrets). The spell’s most important effects are as follows; it has a few other minor properties that you can look at in the spell’s full description:

Requiring only a bonus action to cast, the caster can concentrate on this spell for up to 1 minute, creating a healing spirit that fills a 5-foot cube within 60 feet of them. Whenever a creature you can see enters the spirit’s space for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, you can choose to have the spirit restore 1d6 hit points, requiring no action. This spell can be cast using a higher level spell slot, increasing the healing by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.

Healing Spirit’s Pros

This much-maligned spell is not without merit. If it weren't, people would just discard it instead of trying to find ways to fix it! Healing spirit fills an important niche in fifth edition D&D’s design that no other spells cover: powerful in-combat healing.

Party Composition

As a spell exclusive to the druid and ranger classes, it helps players who want to play a druid or ranger fill an important healing niche in parties without a cleric. One of the design goals of fifth edition D&D was to let people play with any party composition that they wanted—and one of the main barriers to this style of play was the perceived necessity of the cleric. Giving a powerful healing spell to druids and rangers is a step towards democratizing healing, in the same vein as giving all classes hit dice to use as a healing resource.

In-Combat Healing

It’s generally considered less efficient to spend spell slots on healing compared to spending them on damage. Compare cure wounds to guiding bolt. One deals 4d6 radiant damage (an average of 14 damage) and grants advantage on a successful hit and grants advantage to the next attacker’s attack roll, while the other restores hit points equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting modifier (an average of 7, assuming you have a +3 spellcasting modifier). Guiding bolt deals twice the damage that cure wounds heals, and has a bonus effect.

Even if you take into account the fact that guiding bolt can miss its target and cure wounds always “hits,” as long as guiding bolt hits more than half the time, it’s a more efficient use of a spell slot than healing.

Healing spirit is a healing spell potent enough to be worth using in combat. It only requires a bonus action to cast, and, with some clever positioning, can restore 1d6 hit points to each of your allies each turn. While in combat, this element of tactical positioning can be an interesting puzzle for the players to unravel, since they have to find a balance between aggressive and defensive positioning.

Out-of-Combat Healing

This is where healing spirit really falls apart. Unfortunately, I don’t have much good to say about this spell when it comes to out-of-combat healing, either from a narrative or mechanical perspective. We’ll look at it more in the cons section.

Healing Spirit’s Cons

Unfortunately, healing spirit steps on the toes of other existing spells and classes in the game. As you’ll soon see, most of healing spirit’s problems arise because, while it is a balanced and fairly competitive spell in combat scenarios, it’s grossly overpowered out-of-combat.

Party Composition

Healing spirit can cause contention in parties where both clerics and druids/rangers are present. If a cleric wants to play a support role and focus on healing and buffing, it feels unsportsmanlike to play a combat-focused ranger or Wild Shape-focused druid that also has access to a healing spell as potent as healing spirit. Personally, I feel that this is an excellent way to differentiate the healing capabilities of different classes, but the out-of-combat balance of healing spirit needs to be addressed if this stylish asymmetrical balance is to work as intended.

In-Combat Healing

My impression of healing spirit, after several readings of its spell description, is that it was balanced around its usefulness in combat (compare its 1 bonus action casting time to prayer of healing’s 10 minute casting time). As it stands, its concentration requirement makes it an unattractive option in combat, especially since so many of druids’ 2nd-level spell options require concentration.

Out-of-Combat Healing

All other small issues aside, healing spirit’s gravest flaw is its power when used out of combat. If an entire party of adventurers clusters in a 5-foot cube for the spell’s full 1 minute duration (in a sort of heroic cuddle pile, perhaps?), each character will regain 10d6 hit points (an average of 35 hit points) at the cost of a single 2nd-level spell slot.

What this essentially means is that, with only a minute of rest and a single 2nd level spell slot, a druid can fully heal an entire party of 3rd level adventurers. It’s a short rest’s worth of healing in a fraction of the time, which essentially allows an adventuring party to take on any challenge at full hit points. This is where your mileage may vary. If you like to throw a small amount of very challenging encounters at your players, then you’re probably designing all of your encounters with the assumption that your players will tackle them at full hit points anyway. This encounter design philosophy leads to a very heroic style of play, where just about every encounter is a major cinematic moment. If that’s your playstyle, then healing spirit’s out-of-combat potency isn’t a problem at all. It may still present other problems, but this isn’t one of them. In fact, it’s the way the fifth edition D&D is balanced.

However, if you like to play a grim-and-gritty D&D where adventuring is all about carefully conserving your resources in grueling dungeon crawls and being slowly worn down by constant small combats… then this presents a huge problem. First of all, starting every combat at full hit points is antithetical to this style of play. Second, healing spirit is so much better at restoring hit points out-of-combat than it is at restoring them in-combat (its supposed primary function), that the most efficient way to conserve precious resources is to only use it out of combat. Finally and most importantly, it is so much more powerful than comparable spells of prayer of healing (available only to 3rd-level clerics) and aura of vitality (available only to 9th-level paladins) that it makes a druid a better cleric than a cleric and a ranger a better paladin than a paladin, as far as healing is concerned.

The Official House Rule

Jeremy Crawford, managing editor of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, frequently answers player-submitted rules questions on his Twitter account. While he maintains that healing spirit is working as intended, it does “have the potential to exceed our expectations” in out-of-combat scenarios. In layman’s terms, the D&D team isn’t going to make a knee-jerk nerf and over-balance the spell. Instead, they’re devoting additional resources to see how this spell plays out long-term to see if it really is as much of a problem as people claim.

In the meantime, however, Jeremy has provided a simple house rule that brings the spell more in line with its intended power level.

[Pictured tweet reads: “If healing spirit has felt too effective in your game, try this house rule, which holds the spell to our expectations for it: the spell ends once the spirit has restored hit points a number of times equal to twice your spellcasting ability modifier (minimum of once).”]

If a 3rd level druid with a Wisdom of 16 (+3) cast healing spirit, it would restore 1d6 hit points to any creature that passed through the spirit’s space or started its turn there a maximum of six times. If, over the course of their adventuring career, that same druid increased their Wisdom to 20 (+5), the spell could restore 1d6 hit points a maximum of ten times. This means that, at its most powerful, healing spirit cast at 2nd level now only restores an average of 35 hit points, instead of 35 hit points per creature.

This is a major nerf, but it brings healing spirit more in line with prayer of healing. To compare, prayer of healing cast at 2nd level restores hit points equal to 2d8 + your spellcasting modifier to up to 6 creatures. At its most efficient, that’s an average of 84 hit points (2d8 rolls an average of 9, plus 5 is 14, times 6). Prayer of healing restores more than twice the number of hit points of the house ruled healing spirit, but is much less flexible. It must be cast out of combat because of its 10 minute casting time, and it only restores a small amount of hit points to each creature, whereas healing spirit allows you to specify how much healing each creature gets.

For more of the tweets Jeremy has made in response to this spell at the height of the outcry, you can check Zoltar’s Sage Advice blog.

My House Rule

I think Jeremy’s proposed house rule is a strong fix to healing spirit. A few months ago, I was asked how I would change healing spirit, if I were a member of the D&D team. I didn’t have a good answer then, but I’ve had some time to think about it, and this is how I would revise healing spirit to make it a more attractive option in combat while clamping down on its out-of-combat power. Here are the changes I would make to healing spirit, and the final wording I would use:

Remove the spell’s concentration requirement, making it a much more attractive in-combat option. This limitation does nothing to make it less powerful outside of combat, so removing it doesn’t break anything.

Causing the spirit to heal requires you to use your reaction when a creature enters the spirit’s space for the first time on its turn or starts its turn there. Replacing “(no action required)” with “as a reaction” limits the spell’s healing to a maximum of 10d6 without having the spell scale multiplicatively with spellcasting ability modifier. I can’t think of any other spells that increase their effective duration based on ability modifier, just spells like cure wounds which add healing based on your spellcasting ability modifier.

My revised version of healing spirit would look like this:

Healing Spirit

2nd-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 bonus action

Range: 60 feet

Components: V,S

Duration: 1 minute

You call forth a nature spirit to soothe the wounded. The intangible spirit appears in a space that is a 5-foot cube you can see within range. The spirit looks like a transparent beast or fey (your choice).

Until the spell ends, as a reaction when you or a creature you can see moves into the spirit’s space for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, you can cause the spirit to restore 1d6 hit points to that creature. The spirit can’t heal constructs or undead.

As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the spirit up to 30 feet to a space you can see.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.

Healing Spirit in Your Game

When you get right down to it, healing spirit needs some changes. It gives druids and rangers an effective healing spell (hooray!) but it steps all over the cleric and paladin’s comparable healing spells (boo). It you play a heroic game, it lets you start every major fight with full hit points (yay!), but it singlehandedly makes an attrition style of dungeon-crawling play unviable (yikes).

Fortunately, D&D is a game played by humans who can make house rules as they see fit, not a game governed by strict computer programs. Unfortunately, the major problem with not having any official errata on this spell means that my house rules, Jeremy’s house rules, and (most importantly) your house rules are all illegal in D&D Adventurer’s League games. And unfortunately… I have no solutions for that. If you’re having a problem with healing spirit making your AL game less fun, your only recourse is to talk with your players and hope they’re mature about it.

What have your experiences with healing spirit been? I’m interested in what you think of Jeremy’s “official house rule,” and the house rule I’ve provided here, and I also want to know what you have done in your home game to address this spell!

James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with Mei and Marzipan, two fey spirits in the form of small fuzzy animals. You can usually find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.

Comments

TL;DR - Time is measured in Minutes, Hours, Days (not rounds and turns). Combat is made manageable by initiative, rounds, and turns. It is a TOOL to better manage the standard blocks of time. Outside of combat, a round has no definition. The healing spirit spell isn't broken, or over-powered, it actually works as intended. The gamer's emphasis of rounds and turns, and the desire to exploit every second of the game to their benefit in order to "win", are the real problem.

Want the RAW?

For Time, the PHB states, "In a dungeon environment, the adventurer's movement happens on a scale of minutes." (Bold within the text). After some examples, it states, "In a city or wilderness, a scale of hours is often more appropriate." Next paragraph, "For long journeys, a scale of days works best" and finally, "In combat and other fast-paced situations, the game relies on rounds, a 6-second span of time."

Thus, the default time for a scene is measured in minutes, not turns or rounds. By RAW, healing spirit works as intended. This means, the spell needs NO update or errata.

The breakdown of time into Rounds and Turns is ONLY to make combat move at a manageable place, not the other way around. It's not an If/Then proof where things are perfectly equal at all times. At the DM's discretion, the game can remain in rounds at the conclusion of an encounter, but it doesn't mean a PC is entitled to exploit the effects of something by reverse logic that breaks from the rules and spirit of the game.

How to play the spell?

By the RAW of the PHB and XGE, a PC technically has no turns left to benefit as such. In the spirit of the cooperative nature of the game, or if you're feeling generous as a DM, how I run this spell in Adventure's League play and at home: As combat concludes and there are no turns to be adjudicated, a PC can gain the benefits of the healing spirit ONCE.

The Take-Away

Recognizing that rounds and turns don't exist outside of combat answers the question as to the design nature, intent, and execution of the healing spirit spell.

The spell functions in the (healing) spirit of the game, the PCs should endeavor not to break a system to their own benefit, in the same way a DMs should endeavor not to kill their players out of spite.

This is the first post on the matter with which I agree 100 % and addresses the real problem behind all this discussion: players trying to exploit a game mechanics in order to "win" a role-playing game.

Whatever is the final decision of the DM on healing spirit, exploiting the spell is not "winning", it is exactly the opposite.

And the post I quoted is impeccable also on the cited rule: turns do not exist outside a combat. The way I see it, the spirit can heal a single creature in a span of time of 6 seconds, so the caster gets to distribute 10d6 of healing among the members of the party. A solution which is perfectly in line with Prayer of Healing.

And the post I quoted is impeccable also on the cited rule: turns do not exist outside a combat.

But they do! The party finishes a tough fight and they're low on HP. The Cleric casts Regenerate on the Fighter. The Rogue drinks a Potion of Poison thinking it was a Potion of Healing. What do you do? If you apply both effects every 6 seconds you have to acknowledge a turn is occurring for both party members and they're not in combat.

The Adventuring rules say rounds are used in combat "and other fast-paced situations." A "round" is a game term that's defined as containing a series of turns. There's no basis in the rules to say a round can happen without turns or that turns can't exist outside of combat (see the complex trap rules). Healing Spirit isn't the only spell or game effect worded in terms of turns.

The problem isn't players trying to "win" the game (which is a perfectly natural thing to do; you don't set out to play games poorly). The spell's incredible healing is built into its rules. Jeremy wouldn't suggest a house rule if that weren't the case; he'd just say turns don't exist outside of combat and the spell doesn't heal more than one creature every 6 seconds. But that'd be even worse, because it incentivizes getting into fights and sandbagging against the last enemy to exploit the healing in-combat.

Look, I honestly don't care how you rule it at your table. I'm not here to tell you what is right and what is wrong. What I am here to give DM's the information they need to reinforce the type of game they have set out to play without a Rule's Lawyer walking all over them, and how to quickly adjudicate this in a League play setting. If you're the DM of your own homebrew, it is your prerogative to define the terms in whatever way you deem necessary to play the type of game your table dictates. Please, feel free!

THE "SHORT" RESPONSE

I'll address your points for the sake of helping everyone involved in the discussion to understand just how much they can gain by really diving into the rules objectively, instead of subjectively. You can say anything else you want after, I'll have said my peace and done my best to explain the simplest way to stop anyone from trying to exploit the game beyond the spirit of the game.

As an interesting sidebar you brought up, I'd like to point out, just because a player isn't seeking every advantage to "win" doesn't mean that players has set out to play a game poorly. D&D is like the game Patrick Rothfuss put into his book series, Tact-- "The point isn't to win, it's to play a beautiful game".

Since you are trying to extrapolate ideas from the rules as the basis of your argument, we should go ahead and directly quote the rules. Keep track of the italicized portions, as they are very specific in their implication.

"In situations where keeping track of the passage of time is important, the DM determines the time a task requires. The DM might use a different time scale depending on the context of the situation at hand. In a dungeon environment, the adventurers' movement happens on a scale of minutes. It takes them about a minute to creep down a long hallway, another minute to check for traps on the door at the end of the hall, and a good ten minutes to search the chamber beyond for anything interesting or valuable.

In a city or wilderness, a scale of hours is often more appropriate. Adventures eager to reach the lonely tower at the heart of the forest hurry across those fifteen miles in just under four hours' time.

For long journeys, a scale of days works best. Following the road from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep, the adventures spend four uneventful days before a goblin ambush interrupts their journey.

In combat and other fast-pacedsituations, the game relies on rounds, a 6-second span of time described in chapter 9, "combat".

So, you can see your note about handling traps is addressed in there, as well as that last sentence halting your argument entirely. Unless the DM decides that combat continues OR that the poison or healing warrants a "fast-paced situation", it doesn't... and it doesn't by game terminology. But let's double check it by the definitive definition cited in chapter 9, "combat".

"The game organizes the chaos of combat into a cycle of rounds and turns. A round represents about6 seconds in the game world. During a round, each participant in the battle takes a turn. The order of turns is determined at the beginning of a combat encounter, when everyone rolls initiative. Once everyone has taken a turn, the fight continues to the next round if neither side has defeated the other."

The first sentence again hammers home that rounds and turns are simply present to "organize the chaos of combat". After that, we get to the meat of why time is delineated in terms as absolute as minutes, hours, days, etc., but not in rounds and turns. It's because Rounds and Turns are variable in the length and nature. We can't definitively say that 10 rounds equal 1 minute because we can't definitively say that 1 round is exactly 6 seconds.

Do you see now where your interpretation is subjective?

Again, I honestly don't care how you rule it at your table. I'm not here to tell you what is right and what is wrong. What I am here to give DM's the information they need to reinforce the type of game they have set out to play without a Rule's Lawyer walking all over them.

Lemme put it to you this way... how long is a turn?In order for your argument of 10 rounds equals 1 minute to be valid, you must define the term without referencing anything other than seconds or fractions of seconds. Your math must be exact, invariable, and there can't be more than one answer, regardless of the size of the group. You must be especially specific, since the rules never assess that as a direct equivalent, and thus for your math to work backwards, there can be no room for outside variables. This is how a proof works. In order for two things to be equal front to back, they must be absolutely equal.

EVEN FURTHER EXPLANATION: (Most people need not read this far).

To your quasi-points, drinking a Potion of Poison turns into a "fast-paced situation" in the narrative. Why? Cause that rogue has a limited amount of time before he/she/they dies. If the rogue isn't going to die from it, or if no one recognizes that's the case, all the damage is rolled and assigned. You don't slow down time to reveal that someone is taking that damage about every 6 seconds unless there is a narrative reason.

Couple that with what we have from the "TIME" portion of the rules in the chapter before, and you have little leeway. Turns exist within Rounds. Rounds exist within Combat and can't exist without an Initiative order. Even the circular logic is flawed, as you don't have initiative after combat concludes. Outside of combat, time is measured in minutes, hours, days. How your DM adjudicates the Regenerate out side of combat is of little consequence, as the spell is intended to work for an hour, and on a singular target. Nothing about the spell requires you to handle that healing in a "turn" based situation. In fact, the later part of the spell clearly returns to minutes, as both rounds and turns have variable blocks of time... "A round represents about 6 seconds". The same thing happens with the Potion of Poison. The only thing that is actually required before taking each hit of damage is a Constitution saving throw.

The "round" is a game term that is defined as "representing about 6 seconds in the game world". Not a series of turns. Your pointing to the "Complex Trap" rule is based on your assumption that you are not in "a fast-paced situation" or that traps don't fall under "Combat". Thus, as an assumption, it is mute. The reason it is used in such a way is to point that each character that attempts to bypass it is susceptible to its effect. Otherwise, if it said minute, people would have the basis to assume and argue that a trap can only, ever, trigger once per minute. That is clearly not the design intention of the "Complex Trap". This is call circular logic. You (unless you're the DM, in which case, you can bend it to anything you like) can't use events to retroactively circumnavigate the written rule.

As to why Jeremy didn't quote it. Knowing him, and other designers, I can say that it is far more likely that: As designers, we often create things based on the rules we have in front of us. Months later, when asked about them (and as humans) we forget that we were using an application of that specific rule. The fact of the matter is, I've pointed out the actual rule. Cited it verbatim. Just because Jeremy didn't turn around and point to that one specifically, doesn't mean it isn't in effect. It could simply mean that when he was questioned, he forgot he had an easy reference. Trust me, we have to look up the rules constantly.

The 5e designers are smart people. Perhaps smarter than they realize sometimes. Knowing how mathematical proofs work, we know that with certainty that rounds and turns are variable lengths of time and thus, outside of combat, they lose any definition or barring on their definitive cousins, the minute, day, and hour.

This is the first post on the matter with which I agree 100 % and addresses the real problem behind all this discussion: players trying to exploit a game mechanics in order to "win" a role-playing game.

Whatever is the final decision of the DM on healing spirit, exploiting the spell is not "winning", it is exactly the opposite.

And the post I quoted is impeccable also on the cited rule: turns do not exist outside a combat. The way I see it, the spirit can heal a single creature in a span of time of 6 seconds, so the caster gets to distribute 10d6 of healing among the members of the party. A solution which is perfectly in line with Prayer of Healing.

These points conflict with each other. In one sentence you're claiming that people are using the rules, and that's bad. In the next you're using the rules to justify what they're doing is wrong. You can't have it both ways. That's just arbitrarily punishing players after having confused them as to what is and isn't tolerable at your table.

This is the first post on the matter with which I agree 100 % and addresses the real problem behind all this discussion: players trying to exploit a game mechanics in order to "win" a role-playing game.

Whatever is the final decision of the DM on healing spirit, exploiting the spell is not "winning", it is exactly the opposite.

And the post I quoted is impeccable also on the cited rule: turns do not exist outside a combat. The way I see it, the spirit can heal a single creature in a span of time of 6 seconds, so the caster gets to distribute 10d6 of healing among the members of the party. A solution which is perfectly in line with Prayer of Healing.

These points conflict with each other. In one sentence you're claiming that people are using the rules, and that's bad. In the next you're using the rules to justify what they're doing is wrong. You can't have it both ways. That's just arbitrarily punishing players after having confused them as to what is and isn't tolerable at your table.

To be fair, I never said that using the rules is bad and I was not suggesting a way to punish players. Every table can do as it sees fit.

My post was meant to suggest that non-combat situation is not turn-based, as reported by the user I quoted. This way one can avoid having a too huge healing potency with Healing Spirit in an out-of-combat situation.

But, as many rules where there is room for interpretation, DMs in accordance with players can do as they feel right.

@DnDPaladin I wanted to start by saying I agree with your first post saying it's not really that big a deal. :)

The spell's wording works out to per turn, not once per round. It being limited to once per turn still lets any number of a characters get healed once per round, so a single character doesn't get another heal by running through it twice on their turn, but 5 characters could run through it and each get healed in a single round. As written, in a 6-second round a bunch of characters could be healed by it in a single round, each on their turn. Limiting it to once per round would mean in any given 6 seconds, only one character could be healed.

But, all that said, I still don't think limiting it to once per round is a great solution. I'd leave it how it is, and if I thought it was being abused against the spirit of the rules somehow, then I'd just chat with my group. :)

Why does it matter? It's deliberately undefined, but no amount of turns changes the duration of a round and we know how long a round is.

In order for your argument of 10 rounds equals 1 minute to be valid, you must define the term without referencing anything other than seconds or fractions of seconds. Your math must be exact, invariable, and there can't be more than one answer, regardless of the size of the group. You must be especially specific, since the rules never assess that as a direct equivalent, and thus for your math to work backwards, there can be no room for outside variables. This is how a proof works. In order for two things to be equal front to back, they must be absolutely equal.

For your argument to matter, you have to be able to answer these two questions:

I get into combat, cast a spell with a duration of "1 minute" (say, Shillelagh) on my first turn. Combat drags on for dozens of rounds. At what point in combat does the spell wear off?

I'm low on health and cast Aura of Life out of combat. The party keeps moving. How much health have I recovered right before I fall into a spiked pit trap 1 minute later?

You can make a big deal about the lack of precision in the definition of a round, but if you don't have a way to translate from minutes to rounds or rounds to minutes that's rooted in the rules then I don't really care. If a round is 6 seconds +/- some small margin of error, 10 rounds will still be close enough to 1 minute for rules purposes.

To your quasi-points, drinking a Potion of Poison turns into a "fast-paced situation" in the narrative. Why? Cause that rogue has a limited amount of time before he/she/they dies.

Which is something you've arbitrarily decided. Nothing in the rules define what a "fast-paced situation" is. You can just as easily decide the party moving in and out of Healing Spirit constitutes a fast-paced situation too.

As a DM I have made no adjustments to the spell. In our gaming group the spell is currently only cast out of combat (except once). I'm finding it allows traditional classes that perhaps feel the need to save spell slots for out of combat healing to instead use different spells in combat. This has varied and created exciting pieces of the story. "Wow, so cool when you used hold person and we......" vs "Thanks for healing me up again....". Bottom line the use of Healing Spirit out of combat has freed up many spell slots of other classes to be used in combat (Bravo!). The game has evolved slightly and for me as a DM it is working nicely with our group since in combat action is a big part of our game.

I'm sorry, but who in the heck would let players stand in a "cuddle puddle" to abuse the spell. The spell OBVIOUSLY wasn't meant to be used that way and just become some power gamers want to exploit some loose wording doesn't mean it should be allowed. Actually, I don't even really see how it's exploitable.

Note the spell text below in bold and my repsonses below them

You call forth a nature spirit to soothe the wounded. The intangible spirit appears in a space that is a 5-foot cube you can see within range. The spirit looks like a transparent beast or fey (your choice).

Each player takes up a 5ft space. so one at a time heals for the healing spirit.

Until the spell ends, as a reaction when you or a creature you can see moves into the spirit’s space for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, you can cause the spirit to restore 1d6 hit points to that creature. The spirit can’t heal constructs or undead.

Even out of combat, the caster would have to use it's reaction. And you only get 1 per round correct? So again, one at a time for the healing spirit. Also, it says "you can cause the spirit to restore 1d6 hit points to that creature." It clearly says THAT CREATURE. As in singular creature per round. Not every creature in some huddle trying to abuse the rules.

I'm sorry, but who in the heck would let players stand in a "cuddle puddle" to abuse the spell. The spell OBVIOUSLY wasn't meant to be used that way and just become some power gamers want to exploit some loose wording doesn't mean it should be allowed. Actually, I don't even really see how it's exploitable.

Note the spell text below in bold and my repsonses below them

You call forth a nature spirit to soothe the wounded. The intangible spirit appears in a space that is a 5-foot cube you can see within range. The spirit looks like a transparent beast or fey (your choice).

Each player takes up a 5ft space. so one at a time heals for the healing spirit.

Until the spell ends, as a reaction when you or a creature you can see moves into the spirit’s space for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, you can cause the spirit to restore 1d6 hit points to that creature. The spirit can’t heal constructs or undead.

Even out of combat, the caster would have to use it's reaction. And you only get 1 per round correct? So again, one at a time for the healing spirit. Also, it says "you can cause the spirit to restore 1d6 hit points to that creature." It clearly says THAT CREATURE. As in singular creature per round. Not every creature in some huddle trying to abuse the rules.

My proposed house rule to this spell requires the use of a reaction. The original spell does not; by rules as written, the caster can allow a creature to regain 1d6 hit points whenever it first enters the spirit's space on a turn or starts its turn there, no action required.

Sometimes, a single entry is not where we find all the answers. The section in the PHB that governs "Time" is the companion is the precedence you require for making the spell function as intended. See the post I made a few minutes ago; it has the direct quotes from the PHB regarding how time is governed, and works perfectly with RAW and RAI, but only IF your table recognizes and appreciates its hierarchy in RAW.

There is no need to add more math to the equation, and I think that-- possibly even Jeremy-- forgot that this was already covered within the PHB. There are no turns outside of rounds. There are no rounds outside of combat. Healing spirit relies on these to function. There is a generous compromise, should you desire, and one that doesn't break the game OR require additional math to sort out.

I love ya Ruty, but Jeremy disagrees with you on this one. Even out of combat, if counting rounds is necessary, a new round occurs about every six seconds, the same pace as in combat.

But even without the changes, I mean.... isn't kind of obvious that a 2nd level wouldn't be designed to heal 10d6 to all party memebers? Even with the RAW, I would think an honest player would admit this is just some bad wording. It just is frustrating to me as a person who has DM'd for more many years to hear that people will use stuff like this to exploit the design intent.

Besides, if you stick to 1 person takes a 5 foot space, then you couldn't do the lame "cuddle puddle" anyway.

Besides, if you stick to 1 person takes a 5 foot space, then you couldn't do the lame "cuddle puddle" anyway.

That doesn't solve the problem of every player being able to move through the area every 6 seconds and receive healing. They don't need to stay in the area, that just makes the logistics a bit easier.

There's no loopholes being exploited here. The spell might "obviously" heal too much for its level, but there's no way to claim that's not how it works. If the spell is disruptive to your group, the only solutions are to house rule it to bring it in line with what you imagine the intent was, or ban it.

The ethics of a player deliberately taking a spell they know is unbalanced without talking to the DM is a whole other issue. I doubt this is happening regularly in home games, but there's no persistent groups or house rules in Adventurer's League.

Thanks Dusey, all good points. I think it's limited to one heal per turn. "Whenever a creature you can see enters the spirit’s space for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, you can choose to have the spirit restore 1d6 hit points, requiring no action."

Seems consistent with the way the thread has gone.

Point in case: it can heal one person, per turn (in combat) or every 6 seconds (outside of combat), if they start on it or walk through it.

One way a player could be creative: If a player wants to 'throw' a friend that needs healing into the spirit space, they could use their turn to try and do that. Since it's a new 'turn', the player being thrown into or through the spirit space, would be able to receive the healing.

Oh, and don't forgot, the caster must be able to SEE the character passing through the spirit's space. No vision, no healing.

I think a good, careful read of the spell answers most questions. If there's uncertainty, make a decision and stay consistent. And/or jump into some forums and hash it out. Just make sure to have fun, and understand that's why the rules are there.

We've been assuming that turns do not occur outside of combat. This prevents things that trigger on starting a turn from being used outside of combat. So far we have not run into any issues with using this assumption. Minutes still occur so spell durations still end, but things like Healing Spirit have no effect since the trigger does not occur.

Awe, I love you too, buddy! I think we’ll need to ask him specifically, because that’s not at all what that tweet says to me.

“If it’s necessary” doesn’t mean it is in all circumstances, and the DM is who decides “if it’s necessary”. Further, it says “6 seconds or so” and finally, “For more about time, see “Time” in the PHB.” Which brings us back to the wording of the passages, again.

Brother, don’t misunderstand, I’m not arguing for the sake of it. The purpose of my posts is to empower the DM not to be chained to the table by a rule lawyer. Healing Spirit is ONLY an issue for the pace and power of a game if the DM isn’t empowered to make these exact the type of decisions.

So I suppose we have to ask the purpose of your article; Is it to support the DM and story OR the player and winning? So far, I have seen nothing that dictates the player gets the say by RAW, and certainly not by RAI.

That tweet doesn’t disagree with me at all. It is actually about whether or not you can cast reaction spells out of combat. We all know the answer for that. It’s probably best not apply context where it is only half implied, and err on the side of “Time” in the PHB.